1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for adaptive menu design and items presentation reflecting cognitive characteristics. More particularly, the present invention relates to a technique to provide menu items reflecting human cognitive characteristics so as to apply for computer OS, the Internet browsers, and personal data assistants (PDAs) as well as computer programs.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, number of available functions of computer programs has increased dramatically. This has caused menu items of computer programs to increase and the trend of this increase is expected to keep growing. For example, although the mobile phones in the early days had only a few tens of functions, those on sale these days have more than a hundred of functions.
This increase of menu items causes the cognitive burden for using computer programs to increase so that it obstructs initial learning of novice users and familiarization of middle-level users. This increase in number of functions now limits efficiency of menu items display method. However, according to the research by A. Sears of which result presented in “The Split Menus,” ACM Transactions on CHI, 1(1), pp. 27-51 (1995), only 2 or 3 of frequently accessed menu items are known to occupy as much as 70 to 90 percent of the total usage.
Although many have taken researches on menu item presentation techniques to reduce cognitive burden of users based on this factual property, human cognitive ability has not been so fully reflected to the extent of users satisfaction.
One of the techniques to display frequently accessed menus items was presented in U.S. Pat. No. 5,897,670 applied in 1996 with title of “Method and system for efficient organization of selectable elements on a graphical user interface.” In this prior art, frequently accessed menus items are displayed at the top of the menu. Therefore, as the frequency of the menu items changes, the positions of items in the menu change accordingly. This increases users' cognitive burden because the menu positions that are learned through the use of program change. Although the exact menu position is not purposely memorized, but it is left in the user's memory through learning process.
Another in the prior art is the menu item display technique as provided in Microsoft Windows 2000 and Office 2000 that appears in U.S. Pat. No. 6,121,968 applied in 1998. In this technique, a subset list of frequently accessed menus items is provided initially, and the complete list of items is provided after operating a button or a certain period of user time. This technique allows select frequently accessed items in a short period of time and clarifies what are the selected items. However, selection process for items of infrequent access is too bothersome for user's satisfaction. Also, the role of menu item display that makes users familiarized with the system functions even if not available for use is not fully exercised. Indeed, many users of Microsoft Windows 2000 and Microsoft Office 2000 do not like this type of menus.
As other research results, there are proposed techniques in the prior art by A. Sears in “The Split Menus,” ACM Transactions on CHI, 1(1), pp. 27-51 (1995) and by G. Kurtenbachin “The Hot Box,” Proceedings of CHI, pp. 231-237, ACM: New York (1999). ‘Split Menu’ causes confusion to users if the frequency of menu items changes. ‘Hot Box’ is a method to present a large number of items and the purpose is different from that of the present invention. Although the results of these researches are not known to dissatisfy users, they are not so useful from lack of consideration of human cognitive characteristics.